Christmas Word Search
Find the holiday words hidden in the grid. Play here or print it, answer key included.
Christmas Word Search — Answer Key
Classic Christmas · Medium · No. 1
Name Date
0 / 12 found0:00
- CHRISTMAS
- DECEMBER
- FAMILY
- IVY
- JOY
- NOEL
- ORNAMENT
- PEACE
- RIBBON
- STOCKING
- TINSEL
- WRAPPING
https://infinitewordle.net/word-search/christmas/?p=classic-medium-1
About This Christmas Word Search
This Christmas word search is a free holiday puzzle you can play online or print. Pick one of six themes and three levels, then find every festive word hidden in the grid.
Between them, the 6 themes hold 170 holiday words. Each theme has 9,999 puzzles at every level, so you could play a fresh Christmas word search every day of December and never see the same grid twice.
It suits the whole family. Children can start on Easy, while adults who want a challenge can take on the 15×15 Hard grid, where words also run backwards.
One more difference from most printables: every Christmas word search here is checked before you see it, so each word appears exactly once. Nobody circles the wrong ELVES.
How to Play or Print a Christmas Word Search
Play online
Drag across a word, or tap its first and last letter. Found words are circled in holiday colors and crossed off the list, and the clock stops on the last one.
Print the puzzle and the answer key
Press Print for a clean sheet with a name line, the grid and the word list. Press Answer key for the same grid with every word outlined, ready for marking.
Send the same puzzle to a whole class
Copy link above the grid shares the exact puzzle: theme, level and number. Everyone who opens it gets the same grid, which makes for a fair race.
If you came for a Christmas word search printable, this is it: one click, and no PDF to download first.
6 Christmas Word Search Themes
Each theme has its own list of 30 words. Five are secular, and The Nativity tells the Christmas story from the Bible.
Classic Christmas
The decorations and traditions most people picture first. Words include CHRISTMAS, TREE, WREATH, TINSEL and ORNAMENT.
Santa's Workshop
Everything at the North Pole, from the toy bench to the naughty list. Words include SANTA, ELVES, WORKSHOP, TOYS and SLEIGH.
The Reindeer
The eight reindeer named in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, in their modern spelling, plus the rooftop scene it describes. Words include REINDEER, DASHER, DANCER, PRANCER and VIXEN.
Christmas Treats
Holiday food and drink, from gingerbread to panettone. Words include GINGERBREAD, EGGNOG, FUDGE, COCOA and COOKIES.
Winter Wonderland
Snow, ice and cozy things: a winter puzzle that anyone can enjoy, whatever they celebrate. Words include SNOWFLAKE, SNOWMAN, ICICLE, FROST and BLIZZARD.
The Nativity
The Christmas story: Bethlehem, the manger, the shepherds and the Magi's gifts. This is the one religious theme. Words include BETHLEHEM, MANGER, STABLE, SHEPHERD and SHEEP.
Pick a theme from the menu above the grid. Every Christmas word search on this page keeps to these lists, and none of them use trademarked characters.
Easy, Medium or Hard Christmas Word Search?
The level sets the grid size, the number of words and the directions. The table shows each one, with a rough guide to who it suits.
| Level | Grid | Words | Directions | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 10 × 10 | 8 | Across and down | Early readers |
| Medium | 12 × 12 | 12 | Adds forward diagonals | Older kids, casual players |
| Hard | 15 × 15 | 16 | All 8, including backwards | Teens and adults |
Looking for a hard Christmas word search? Hard hides 16 words among 225 letters, and some of them read right to left or from the bottom up.
For a Christmas word search for kids, Easy keeps every word reading the normal way. The guide is only a suggestion, so let a confident young reader try Medium.
The Hardest Christmas Words to Find
REINDEER is the hardest word in our Christmas word search: a typical 15×15 grid holds about 17 false starts for it. YULETIDE has fewer than 1.
A false start is a pair of neighboring letters that matches the start of a word but leads nowhere. Each one is a place your eye stops, checks and moves on.
We counted them for all 170 words across 12,000 hard grids.
Why REINDEER hides in plain sight
REINDEER begins with RE, a pair built from two of the most common letters in the grid. Every RE pair, in any direction, looks like it could be the start.
TEDDY and HEAVEN suffer the same way, with TE and HE. Words that open with a common pair are usually the last ones found.
Why YULETIDE and JOY jump out
YULETIDE opens with YU and JOY with JO, pairs that hardly ever turn up by chance. Find the first letter and the word is usually right there.
The hardest theme: Santa's Workshop
Averaged over every word, Santa's Workshop gives about 6.2 false starts per hidden word, the most of the six. Winter Wonderland is the gentlest, at 4.6.
So for the toughest Christmas word search, pick Santa's Workshop on Hard. For a younger player, Winter Wonderland on Easy is the kindest start.
How we counted false starts
We generated 2,000 hard puzzles for each of the 6 themes, 12,000 grids in all. In each, we counted every neighboring letter pair that matched a word's first two letters without being the word itself.
Words are ranked by their average per grid. The figures describe the
grids, not players. Source: scripts/generate-wordsearch-stats.mjs.
6 Tips for Christmas Word Search Puzzles
- 01
Start with the rare letters
Look for J, V, X, Y and Z first. JOY, VIXEN, MYRRH and BLITZEN give themselves away. - 02
Spot the doubles
HOLLY, BELLS, COOKIES and EGGNOG all carry a double letter that stands out in a grid. - 03
Remember there are no spaces
Two-word phrases are written as one: CANDYCANE, NORTHPOLE, MINCEPIE. Look for the full run of letters. - 04
Save the hardest for last
REINDEER, TEDDY and HEAVEN have the most lookalikes. Find the easy words first, so fewer letters are left to check. - 05
Read backwards on Hard
On Hard, a word can run the wrong way. If a row reads LEGNA, you have found ANGEL. - 06
Race on the same puzzle
Send the Copy link to a friend or relative and see who finds every word first.
Ways to Use a Christmas Word Search This Season
An advent puzzle a day
Print one puzzle for each day from December 1 to 24. Rotate through the six themes, or step the level up each week.
A party or family game
Print a copy per person, start a timer and see who finishes first. Mixed ages can play together: give children Easy and adults Hard on the same theme.
Sunday school and church groups
The Nativity theme follows the Christmas story, so it works as a quiet activity after a lesson. Print one Christmas word search per child and keep the answer key for the leader.
Classroom and travel
A Christmas word search is a quiet activity for the last week of term, or for a long drive to see family. Print the answer key too, so checking takes seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this Christmas word search free to print?
Does it come with an answer key?
Is there a hard Christmas word search for adults?
Which level is best for kids?
How many words are in each puzzle?
Is there a religious Christmas word search?
Can I print a whole set for a class?
Do I need to download anything?
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Can I get a different puzzle each time?
More Holiday Puzzles
Want more after the holidays? The word search page has 10 year-round themes, and there are daily word games in all games.